


Vengeance is Mine

by Brumeier



Series: Bite Sized Fic 2018 [33]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Community: hc_bingo, Established Relationship, Gay Bashing, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Prompt Fill, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 13:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15268677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: LJ Comment Fic for Bad Day prompt:Any, any, "It can't rain all the time." (The Crow)In which teenage Steve and Bucky are the victims of a hate crime, and Steve becomes empowered to exact some vengeance.





	Vengeance is Mine

**Author's Note:**

> Fills h/c bingo square: fall from grace

The rain was coming down in sheets and had been for the last two days. Storm drains were overflowing, and the roads had inches of standing water on them. Anyone walking on the sidewalks ran the very real risk of getting hit with a vehicle-generated tsunami. Street vendors were selling out of umbrellas.

It felt like the apocalypse, which made sense since Steve should’ve been dead. Maybe had been. Bucky was still undecided.

The hospital room felt stuffy and dark despite the early hour, the unrelenting rain and slate-gray skies keeping the city at perpetual dusk. But Steve didn’t want to turn on the light. He wasn’t even technically supposed to be there, sitting in the visitor’s chair with rain water pooling around his wet sneakers.

“Hey,” Steve said, keeping his voice down. “It’s me.”

The only response was the hiss of the ventilator and the beeping of the heart monitor. Steve nodded, as if Bucky had spoken.

“You don’t have to worry. I’m not gonna get sick. I don’t think I can anymore.”

He was certain he’d died. Remembered tasting blood and gasping for breath, his vision darkening. Remembered those first drops of rain splatting against his face as he fought for his life and Bucky’s. Could still feel that knee pressed so hard against his chest that his bones snapped.

Steve didn’t remember passing out, but he remembered waking up, soaked to the bone but not broken, not bloody. Not like Bucky, who’d been discarded like a broken doll. He’d called for an ambulance and held Bucky’s hand and promised to make things right.

“Only one left now,” Steve told Bucky’s still form. “I don’t know what happens after. But you and me, we’re forever. Don’t forget. Till the end of the line.”

He swiped the tears from eyes, where they burned like acid. Steve had been spared and he knew why. Vengeance. Everything about him that had been sickly and weak, the things that had kept him from defending himself and Bucky, was gone. He could run like he had wings on his feet, without wheezing, and he was strong. Stronger than a sixteen-year-old boy should be.

Steve had to find the last member of the gang that had tried to beat the gay out of him and Bucky. Just the ringleader now, and hopefully whatever debt he owed for his life would have been paid with the blood that was now on his hands.

“In case I don’t come back, I wanted to say goodbye. And I’m sorry.” Steve looked at the window, rivulets of rain distorting the view outside. “I hope you have a good life. Remember me like I was. Before.”

Before he’d fallen from grace. Before he’d so willingly taken the lives of others. Steve didn’t know what force had granted him the ability to exact vengeance, but it certainly wasn’t the God his mother used to tell him about. What Steve was doing was Old Testament. There was no turning the other cheek.

He got up from the chair, conscious of the passage of time and knowing a nurse would be coming in soon. He stepped up next to the bed and looked down at Bucky’s bruised and battered face. 

“Love you, punk,” he whispered. He bent over and pressed a kiss to Bucky’s forehead, wiping away the water that dripped on him from Steve’s wet hair. “It’ll be okay. Can’t rain all the time, right?”

Steve slipped out of the room moments later, clear in his mission.

Seven hours and five minutes later the sun broke through the rainclouds, and Bucky Barnes opened his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** There’s no way I could fill this prompt and not go to a dark, _The Crow_ -inspired place. You can decide for yourself if Steve and Bucky get a second chance at happiness. ::grins::


End file.
